3. Youngling Arc
So in light on Onderon achieving the place of number four, we now come to the Youngling Arc that, though wasnt perfect, proved to be a great tale that catered for both the younger and mature generations. Arguably, this could have stood in for the Droid Arc as the child-friendly episodes, but Ive already made my point about that, so here we are. The concept of Jedi training has always been a mystery to me. I dont know whether there are journals or stories out there that explain what happens and tell stories of their own, but that belongs in the Expanded Universe, so it was nice to see The Clone Wars take on the Younglings for themselves. The opening episode The Gathering wasnt the strongest in the series, but then the first ones never are. Though the sets were visually spectacular, specifically the Jedi statues and the waterfall, ice cavern, the episode was there to establish the Younglings and their characters, rather than create them on the go. Once we got past The Gathering, the real fun started. Being a Doctor Who fan I thoroughly enjoyed the special guest appearance of David Tennant voicing the droid Huyang and he even had some typical banter lines with R2-D2 that mirrored the partnership with C-3PO, who has been absent for practically all this season. It was also nice to see Ahsoka in a more instructive role. Though she wasnt their master, she certainly their mentor, responsible and protective of them showed just how far she has come, able to operate effectively on her own, showing the true makings of a Jedi Knight. I know we already saw her alone in the Onderon Arc, but with the Younglings she was more of an elder as opposed to an adviser and considering what the entire season had been building up to, it was nice to spend as much time with Ahsoka as possible. We were also treated to another appearance of everyones favourite pirate, Hondo. Hes had so much screen time throughout this series that I feared that he would be one of the casualties this season. Considering the Youngling Arc was set before the events of the season premiere, Hondos life was safe for the moment, but you cant help but wonder what they were building up to. Saying that, despite all his newly found screen time, there was little development in his character, besides a discovery of morality, but Hondo has become a classic character to the series and his lines remain to be comic genius, witty and his character remains both lovably hilarious and outrageously stubborn. I also found it quite a moment when Hondo and the infamous General Grievous wound up in the same room together. I dont know why but there was something about the two that made the moment unique and geekily brilliant. Which brings me onto the droid general himself. For some reason that I cant explain, Grievous, who was originally built up to be a vicious warrior skilled in the arts of the lightsabar in the Clone Wars mini-series, was completely vindicated and overestimated when it came to Episode III. And unfortunately, this pitiful, weak, coward of a General seemed to transfer to The Clone Wars. He never gets a break, but things turned around this time. Grievous has come into his stride quiet recently, leading a massacre on the Nightsisters last season in the conveniently named Massacre episode and now a violent attack on Obi-wans fleet in Bound for Rescue and a rematch with Ahsoka in A Necessary Bond. Not only did Grievous achieve a victory (more or less), the violence in which he committed was quite brutal; a specific example being when he has a clone trapped under his foot/claw and sees fit to either choke or break the clone out of shot. The team seemed to be deliberately reconfiguring the way we view Grievous which I enjoyed thoroughly. Grievous is such a great character which despite his character, I really like, so its nice to see the team trying to reimburse some dignity back into him. Overall, the Youngling Arc was a great little series of episodes, filled with a mixture of epic battles, great dialogue, enjoyable characters and some great moments and teasers to long-term fans. Need I not mention the return of Slave I, refurbished and repainted. It would appear that they intend on bringing back a certain young bounty hunter (or rather intended, but well get to that at the end of this article).